25 Essential Legal Blogs and Free LegalTech Bloggers’ Breakfast

There may be no such thing as a free lunch, but if you are a blogger headed to LegalTech New York this year, there is a free breakfast.

The LegalTech schedule lists a Bloggers’ Breakfast event on the calendar for the second day of the conference. The bloggers breakfast will be held on February 5, 2014 from 9:00-10:00 a.m. in the Petit Trianon Room at the New York Hilton Midtown.

As the schedule shows, the event is “invitation-only,” and there are quite a few folks that may have seen invitations already. However, if you are a blogger and did not get and invitation, we’d be happy to provide one. Since we’re sponsoring the event, send me an email at frank.strong[at]lexisnexis[dot]com and we will add you to the invitation list.

The LegalTech NY Blogger’s Breakfast will be a great chance to both fuel up for the day and network with your fellow legal bloggers. To that end, here’s a long list – in no particular order – of essential legal blogs we have enjoyed reading.

25 Essential Legal Bloggers

1. 3 Geeks and a Law Blog. “This blog may seem somewhat eclectic, but if you step back you can see that we focus on the administrative side of today’s large law firm environment,” reads the self-description. The blog has multiple contributors, publishing under a guiding principle, which is to write about whatever they find interesting. That usually has a lot to do with the legal industry.

2. Adam Smith, Esq. Adam Smith was an economist and in that same vein, this blog “…is an inquiry into the economics of law firms.” The posts presented are often long but thoughtful; well worth a bookmark. Bruce MacEwen, who we suspect often pens the posts (there are no bylines, which is true of The Economist magazine too), was recently named a National Law Journal “Trailblazer.”
3. Advocate’s Studio. Positioned as “musings on technology in the law, research and writing,” Martha Sperry is an attorney near Boston who writes, “Computers and technology have influenced me for as long as I can remember.” She’s a proponent of the Free Law Project.
4. At the Intersection. Pam Waldow writes a “globally-acclaimed blog that explores the world of law firms and clients that need each other, but don’t always play well together.” It’s that notion that represents what she calls the intersection. We especially appreciated her post on gamification.

5. Attorney at Work. For the editors at this blog, which by our calculation runs just like a modern media newsroom, the “goal is to give you everything you need to create a law practice—and a life—you can love.” True to their word, they have all sorts of tips and tricks for the independent attorney – including a good case for why billing is marketing.

8. Dewey B Strategic. A law librarian and knowledge strategist, Jean P. O’Grady, tends to post by the numbers – that is to say we think she likes data. This post on the Corporate Counsel Agenda, is one we saw making the social media rounds last December, when she examined the impact of government on inside counsel.

10. Future Lawyer. Rick Georges is a self-described “lawyer, poet, author and educator” that “practicesreal property, corporation, wills, trusts and estates law” in Florida. By our observation, he often writes about the latest gadgets that might be useful to lawyers. He’s better than a Walt Mossberg for the legal profession.

15. Law21. Jordan Furlong is lawyer and strategic consultant based in Ottawa, Canada.His blog presents “dispatches from a legal profession on the brink”and his commentary is as relevant here in the U.S. as it is anywhere else. He doesn’t shy from asking hard questions: You say you want a revolution?

17. The Legal Watercooler. The name of this blog is by design “a place where we can grab a cup of coffee and share in a little bit of industry chat.” Author Heather Morse is the director of Marketing for Barger & Wolen LLP, a mid-sized law firm based in Los Angeles, though she’s also served in senior marketing positions with AmLaw 100 law firms. Ever been at a legal conference and find yourself confused as to which of the dozen hashtags (#LNTY) flying around Twitter is the right one? Heather probably knows the answer.

18. Lawyerist. The most prominent personality we see that goes with this blog belongs toSam Glover, a lawyer and a writer. He explains in a profile page, “Lawyerist, a blog I started in 2007, began as a place for me to rant about bad legal software. It has since grown into a healthy business, and my day job.” It’s probably not easy to build a blog that can be turned into a living. We’ve got a lot of admiration for the community he’s built around the blog along with all the thoughtful content: How to Build a Law Practice Incubator.

20. Prism Legal. Few knew what blogging was all about when Ron Friedman started publishing posts in 2003. The blog has changed names in the more than a decade it’s been active – originally it was titled Strategic Legal Technology. Ron explains the name change on his site, “Since the 2008 economic crisis and the advent of the “New Normal” legal market, my blog is as much as about BigLaw business as it is about technology.” Here is one recent example: Report Questions Large Law Firm Focus on Growth.

If you have a law blog, feel free to promote in the comments of this post. We’ll add you to our RSS readers and look forward to reading and sharing your posts. For those going to LegalTech, we hope to see you there!

About Frank Strong

Frank Strong is the communications director with the LexisNexis software division located on NC State’s Centennial Campus in Raleigh. In this capacity he leads communications efforts in support of software products for law practice and law department management and also litigation tools – across large law, small law and corporate counsel segments. With more than 15 years of experience in the high-tech sector, Strong previously served as director of public relations for Vocus, which developed marketing, PR and media monitoring software. He has held multiple roles both in-house with corporations, ranging from startups to global organizations, and has also endured the rigors of billable hours, having completed gigs at PR firms including the top 10 global firm Hill & Knowlton. A veteran of two year-long deployments, Strong has concurrently served in uniform in reserve components of the military for more than 20 years, initially as an enlisted Marine and currently as an infantry officer in the Army National Guard. Strong holds a BA in Film and TV production from Worcester State University, an M.A. in Public Communication from American University, and an M.B.A. from Marymount University.

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